Cole Hamels melted, Cliff Lee was battered and after two telling losses in New York, the Phillies were left with a once unlikely proposition: Jonathan Pettibone … stopper.

That, at least, is what it will come to today (8:15) in St. Louis, where the Phils will continue a season-long struggle to grow comfortable with a .500 record against the team with the best record in the National League.

They will trust Pettibone, once an emergency minor-league call-up, to continue to provide serviceable, big-league pitching at a critical moment. The 22-year-old right-hander is 5-3 with a 3.89 ERA, a 61-to-31 strikeout-to-walk ratio and an opportunity to push the 49-50 Phillies back to even.

“It was unfortunate, losing two of three to these guys,” Pettibone said Sunday, after a 5-0 loss to the Mets. “But at the same time, we’ve got to continue how we’ve been playing the last couple of weeks and continue off of that and try to win each game and try to win each series.

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“We can’t control what the Braves and Washington are doing. But I think that if we start winning and playing better, things will take care of themselves.”

Pettibone has pitched into at least the sixth inning in each of his last three starts, and in three of his last five starts has allowed just one earned run. When the Phillies reassembled a Roy Halladay-Hamels-Lee front of the rotation, they hadn’t considered Pettibone as a reasonable weapon. But when the season swerved, Pettibone provided at least some stability.

Right-hander Shelby Miller (9-6, 2.92) will start for St. Louis. Like Pettibone, he is 22 and is in his first full big-league season, though he did make six regular-season and two postseason appearances in 2012. Neither starter has ever faced the other team.

“I think that it helps that a lot of guys in this league don’t like to see guys pitch for the first time,” Pettibone said. “I have kind of found that out. So I just want to stick to my game plan and go after these guys. And I should be all right.”